Through Wall For Christmas

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30937, 18 December 1965, Page 15

Through Wall For Christmas

(N J.P.A.-heiaor—Copyright) WEST BERLIN, Dec. 17. The Berlin wall will open tomorrow to allow West Berliners to pay day visits to their relatives in the Eastern sector during Christmas and New Year. More than half a million people are expected to cross

the grim barrier before it closes again on January 2. The wall will open at 7 aan. tomorrow for the sixth time since the first breach at Christmas, 1962, which ended two years of complete separation for divided families. Well before the official opening time long queues of anxious relatives are expected at each of the five permitted crossing points in the massive strip of concrete and barbed wire that runs far

nearly 29 miles through the city. But the joy of family reunions will be tempered by the possibility of a long wait for another meeting. - The present agreement negotiated between Bast Germany and the West Berlin city government which expires in March, took five months ef tough bargaining. Prospects for an early settlement of a new agreement are a itm Bast Germany to expected

to come forward with some new connected wtth her steadily growing efforts for political recognition, and her aim to undermine West Berlin’s political ties wtth West Germany. Shops on both sides of the wall are crowded with people buying presents—ln East Berlin mainly toys, handicraft, records and books: in West Berlin textiles, coffee, cigarettes, cognac, and fruits.